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• Editorial Note
• Introduction
• Preface
• Chapter I: Of the Excellence and Praise of Reason
• Chapter II: Of Suppressing and Restraining the Passion, With a Summary of the Views of Plato the Philosopher
• Chapter III: Summary Prolegomena to the Detailed Account of Each of the Evil Dispositions of the Soul
• Chapter IV: Of How a Man May Discover His Own Vices
• Chapter V: Of Carnal Love and Familiarity, With a Summary Account of Pleasure
• Chapter VI: Of Conceit
• Chapter VII: Of Envy
• Chapter VIII: Of Repelling Anger
• Chapter IX: Of Casting Away Mendacity
• Chapter X: Of Miserliness
• Chapter XI: Of Repelling Excessive and Hurtful Anxiety and Worry
• Chapter XII: Of Repelling Grief
• Chapter XIII: Of Greed
• Chapter XIV: Of Drunkenness
• Chapter XV: Of Sexual Intercourse
• Chapter XVI: Of Excessive Fondness and Trifling, and Ritual
• Chapter XVII: Of Earning, Acquiring and Expending
• Chapter XVIII: Of the Quest For Worldly Rank and Station
• Chapter XIX: Of the Virtuous Life
• Chapter XX: Of the Fear of Death

PREFACE

God give the Prince perfect happiness and complete bliss.—Mention having been made in the presence of the Prince (God give him long life!) of a treatise I compiled upon the reformation of the character, that had been required of me by certain of my brethren in Baghdad during my sojourn there, my Lord the Prince (may God assist him!) commanded me to compose a book that should contain the chief points of this subject, to be as brief and concise as possible, and to entitle it the Spiritual Physick; that it might be a companion to the Liber Almansoris1 (whose purpose is the Bodily Physick) and correspond therewith; for he estimated (God prolong his power!) that if it were joined to the other, general profit would be the result, as comprehending both the soul and the flesh.

I therefore applied myself to this task, and promoted it before all my other occupations; and I pray that God may so assist me, that I shall please my Lord the Prince and win his favour and approval. I have divided this book into twenty chapters, as follows:

(1) Of the Excellence and Praise of Reason.

(2) Of Suppressing and Restraining the Passion, with a Summary of the Views of Plato the Philosopher.

(3) Summary Prolegomena to the Detailed Account of Each of the Evil Dispositions of the Soul.

(4) Of How a Man may Discover his Own Vices.

(5) Of Repelling Carnal Love and Familiarity, with a Summary Account of Pleasure.

(6) Of Repelling Conceit.

(7) Of Repelling Envy.

(8) Of Repelling Excessive and Hurtful Anger.

(9) Of Casting Away Mendacity.

(10) Of Casting Away Miserliness.

(11) Of Repelling Excessive and Hurtful Anxiety and Worry.

(12) Of Dismissing Grief.

(13) Of Repelling Greed.

(14) Of Repelling Habitual Drunkenness.

(15) Of Repelling Addiction to Sexual Intercourse.

(16) Of Repelling Excessive Fondness, Trifling, and Ritual.

(17) Of the Amount of Earning, Acquiring, and Expending.

(18) Of Repelling the Strife and Struggle in Quest of Worldly Rank and Station, and the Difference between the Counsel of Passion and Reason.

(19) Of the Virtuous Life.

(20) Of the Fear of Death.

The discrepancy between the wording of the chapter headings as given here, and that found in the body of the text, reflects the author’s inconsistency in the original Arabic.

[1 ]Kitāb al-Mansūrī, see Introduction, pp. 3, 8.